Leon Patton Gerald Hebert Harold Lamons Jimmy Smith

Friends having a good time at
GFL

Harold Lamon’s “Pair One”
breeders

By Gerald
Hebert

This story is about what Harold Lamons calls the best 969 breeders in the
country! “969” was Mike Ganus’ #1 cock for many years, he produced breeders and
foundation birds for many, many lofts. Harold says “969” himself was not that
impressive, but the hens Mike Ganus mated him to were simply awesome hens. The
hens Mike picked to mate to “969” were direct imported hens bred by the Janssen
Brothers! Not hens from someone else, but direct from the loft of the famous
brothers. Harold says “969” would out produce himself almost every time! The
list of hens used by Mike was absolutely the best hens he could buy from the
brothers. Daughters of “Young Merckx”, “Champion 977”, and granddaughters of
“Oude Merckx” were the foundation of the “969” mates. “969” himself was a
direct son of the infamous “019”, probably the best racer the Janssen brothers
ever raised! 18 x 1st, but disappointing as a breeder of racers. In
later years it was discovered that his children were the breeders, most were
used by many lofts to breed outstanding results worldwide. It is often said,
“969” was the best son of “019” ever imported into the US, Harold believes that
to be true, and wanted to line breed them for his race team.

In late 1994 Harold visited Fred Smeltzer looking for a double granddaughter of
“969”. They were about the best for his area he had seen. What he found and
liked was a beautiful, small, super conformation blue hen banded IF 94 GSS 353
BB.
This hen was out of a
son of “969” named “Boy Scout”, which Fred said was a fine producer for him.
The dam of 353, 90 GSS 1695, was a daughter of “Assured Gold” when mated to a
daughter of “Continental Class”. Very well bred to say the least, “Assured
Gold” was said to be the best son of “Champion 969”, and he was mated to one of
the best daughters of “Continental Class”, called CH 4. Harold had no idea
exactly what he would mate this hen to, but he did have in mind to one day breed
her to AU 93 SMD 387, a cock he had in seen and was interested in purchasing.
This should prove to be an exceptional pair with the conformation he demanded,
and the blood to produce winners.

In 1995 Harold finally came across the really nice
breeder he had seen, banded
AU 93 SMD 387 BB. His sire was a son of “Champion 969” and his dam was a
daughter of “969”, both bred by his friend, Mike Ganus, who lived very close
by. This cock had already produced several good racers for other lofts, but was
for sale, and Harold wanted him. Tom Hummer was the present owner, and was
willing to let Harold have him as long as he was able to get a few young
himself, because he knew the quality of Harold’s loft. Harold bred several
birds by pulling eggs early, and it paid off in dividends, this cock was a
producer! Harold had purchased the cock he needed, 387 had the conformation
Harold insisted on and was young enough to breed for many years.

As it happened, in 1995 Harold did put these 2 birds together, just for one
round. A super cock bird was hatched in that round and Harold put him on his yb
race team, to fill it up early, and just to see what he could do. The results
are still talked about today! That young cock bird won his first race in not
only the club, but beat the whole combine! The next week Harold entered him
again just hoping the bird didn’t burn himself out the first week. Not a
chance, this young cock went on to win the next 3 races in a row, and also took
the combine every time also. What a young bird racer! The best Harold had ever
flown, beating 900 to 1,200 other young birds each race. Unfortunately the
following race was a smash and he lost the formidable racer, as sometimes
happens with a really hot speed bird.

A fluke many might say, but Harold was confident in his “dream mating,” and put
them back together the next season. All the cock birds were sold right out of
the nest, but Harold kept 3 daughters to test this mating one more time. The 3
daughters were sent to the races, and all three were combine winners! All 3
were sold to some very excited fanciers who wanted to breed with these super
race hens. Over the next 7 years Harold has never raced another direct
youngster out of the mating. He has 6 direct children in his stock loft, and I
have 4, and many were sold to fanciers all over the country, so many Harold has
lost count. No one has ever complained about these children of the couple
Harold has since named “Pair One”, and many, many reports have come back how
they were super breeders. We have noticed the hens are somewhat more consistent
breeders of good racers than the cock birds. Harold has one daughter, “1755,”
that has produced as many as 4 combine winners in one season.

Ron Diescher bought one of the 3 hens that Harold flew in 1996. This hen proved
to be a super breeder for him. Ron won race after race with 3 children of that
hen in the first season he had her. Ron won average speed and Champion loft,
but said he could have won all that with just these 3 birds! They were named 1st,
2nd, and 3rd Ace of his club and combine.

The door has since been closed; Harold will not sell anymore children directly
from his fabulous “Pair One”. Harold says, “they are the best of the “969”
breeders in the country,” and he is saddened to say they will not be around any
longer, age is finally catching up with them, and the hen has stopped laying.
All their children are powder blue colored, and they all have a very
distinguishing mark, a one-feather tail, and it is usually covered with cover
feathers all the way to the dark bluing on the tail. The “Pair One” children
have done very well in the show ring also, showing the super conformation of
their now famous parents. I have shown one cock that was named Champion Young
Cock, and Champion Young Cock in the Eyesign division, in the same show, Houston
Jan. 2001.

Many grandchildren of Pair One have been dominate in many combines across the
US. B. Habitz of New Iberia, Louisiana had never won a combine. He purchased a
grandson of Pair One in our club auction that Harold had donated to. Since
then, Mr. Habitz has won several combine races, and ALL of them were from that
same grandson of Pair One!

The Pair One hen, 353, is now in Louisiana as since
she has stopped laying eggs, and we thought the mild winters and early spring
might just get her to lay one more time. The hen is in wonderful condition, but
Mother Nature just stepped in and stopped her from laying. The full record of
her children and grandchildren may never be known, as pigeon fanciers have a bad
habit of not keeping up with all the contacts who happen to have owned and bred
from them. We’re not too worried about that, we know they have the goods, and
their children and grandchildren will produce top birds for us for many more
years.

The Pair One cock, 387 is still in Michigan at Harold’s loft, and is still
filling eggs. We know the youngsters will never match up to all his previous
children with 353, but there should be a few good ones to hang on to.
Pictured below is Harold and his famous "Pair One"

As the story says above, the Pair One Cock is still breeding in Michigan.
He has been paired to daughters

and granddaughters of the original pair, along with a super daughter of "Blue
Steel" and "Diamond Ring".

These offspring have been super, some better than from the original mating!
We have several on hand if

anyone is interested, they have been super breeders also. This seems to
be the last year for the old man,

he is getting slow at topping the hens, but when he does, the eggs have been
good, we hope to raise

several more this year for the stock loft and a few will be sold, give Harold
or me a call for a pigeon that

will make your loft a winner. Supply is very limited, sales have been
good without any advertising.

Young from Harold's newest super breeder are $400 each- and they are nice!!!

Direct son of "Mr Universe" and "Fantasy", his children are producers of many
many winners in